Superfluous Adornment: January 2012

Monday, January 23, 2012

A Job Well Done

"It always seems impossible until it's done."
— Nelson Mandela

I have been working on this mosaic project for about a year (two, from the time the client contacted me by email). She googled "tree frog mosaic" and found this picture:

Not a very good picture of it, this was taken from the website http://www.mosaic-tile-

guide.com/gallery/v/Molly+Perusse/?

Time to get more current pictures of that original Kitchen backsplash...

Client Kim basically left the design part up to me, saying that she liked everything she had seen of mine; such wonderful trust;)

So, I love the Flora and Fauna and that is what I decided to go with for her design.

These are the original drawings I made and emailed to her to get her approval; she had sent me templates of the areas to be covered in her kitchen, leaving space for light switch plates and spaghetti pot faucet.

I added a bit of color to part of it to give her a (very loose) idea of some color.

I used stained glass for this mosaic and so the color design changed as I found colored glass to fit certain areas.

This is Kim's kitchen, the picture she sent me to give me an idea of the space. Since there are such vertical lines, I decided to add some horizontal "flow" to the design by having a tree branch move across the space.

Here is the stove section partially done. I worked on and finished all the critters first and then started the branches and flowers. The Michigan "Tulip trees" or magnolias were in bloom last Spring when I was working on the design; that was my floral inspiration. I took several pictures of the trees around my town to copy the flowers and then made my own color design for the mosiac.

Laying different size pieces to check the background.

Here is a shot of the branch "flow" to create a horizontal feel in the mosaic.

Here are the finished panels laid out at my shop.

Taped into a box for the trip to upstate New York.

Here is the corner sink panel glued into place.

I covered the pieces with clear contact paper for transport and it made it easier to push into place and spread the pressure over the glued back. I have used a cardboard strip before.

I removed the contact paper in bits and pushed to make sure it was evenly glued to the wall.

Once I had it all glued there was a question about the light switch plate. I offered the possibility of covering one with matching mosaic pattern, they took me up on that. I worked on it that night and grouted it the next day. What a difference this plate made to the overall piece.